Fodor's Expert Review Hajjah Fatimah Mosque

In 1845, Hajjah Fatimah, a wealthy Muslim woman married to a Bugis trader, commissioned a British architect to build this mosque (hajjah is the title given to a woman who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca). The minaret is reputedly modeled on the spire of the original St. Andrew's Church in the Civic District, but it leans at a six-degree angle. No one knows whether this was intentional or accidental, and engineers brought in to see if the minaret could be straightened have walked away shaking their heads. This relatively small mosque (and gazetted national monument) is an intimate oasis amid all the bustle. It's extremely relaxing to enter the prayer hall (remember to take your shoes off), sit in the shade of its dome, and admire the 12 lancet windows with yellow and green stained glass. French contractors and Malay artisans rebuilt the mosque in the 1930s. Hajjah Fatimah and her daughter and son-in-law are buried in an enclosure behind the mosque.